Impact Review

Impact Review (Development Impact) is defined in Article 7 of the NILCA. The provisions of the Article are initiated upon receiving a project proposal from a licensing agency on behalf of a project proponent. A project proponent is a person, body or government authority that proposal a project. A project proposal is a physical work that the proponent proposes to construct, operate, modify, decommission, abandon, or otherwise carry out, or a physical activity that a proponent proposes to undertake or otherwise carry out within the Nunavik Marine Region (NMR).

Impact Review Process

Article 7 of the Nunavik Inuit Land Claims Agreement (NILCA), establishes two types of review processes for the environmental assessment of proposed projects; one under Part 5 and the other under Part 6 of the Article.Â A Part 5 review is conducted internally by the NMRIRB, whereas a Part 6 review is conducted by a Federal Environmental Assessment Panel.

"Part 5" Review

When a project proposal has been referred to NMRIRB by the Minister for review, NMRIRB shall, upon soliciting any advice it considers appropriate, issue guidelines to the proponent for the preparation of an impact statement. It is the responsibility of the proponent to prepare an impact statement in accordance with any guidelines established by NMRIRB. Where the original project proposal submitted by the proponent for screening contains the information required for an impact statement, NMRIRB may accept the original project proposal instead of requiring the preparation of an impact statement.

"Part 6" Review

Where the Minister under paragraph 7.4.7(a) decides to refer a project proposal to the Minister of the Environment for public review by a federal environmental assessment panel, the panel shall conduct its review in accordance with the provisions of this Part and with any other procedures, principles and general practices that provide at least the same opportunity for an open and comprehensive public review as provided by the Environmental Assessment and Review Process Guidelines Order (S.O.R./84-467, 22 June, 1984).

Proponents

Any proponent wishing to proceed with a project proposal is encouraged to contact an Authorizing Agency and the NMRIRB about their proposal.Â A proponent must first contact all of the Authorizing Agencies responsible for issuing any authorization (letter, permit, license, lease, certificate, or other written or verbal communication that authorizes a project or a component of a project to proceed) associated with the project proposal.Â It is important to note that a project proposal may require more than one authorization based on land and water (marine or freshwater) jurisdictional responsibilities.

Following the application process with the Authorizing Agency, proponents are encouraged to contact NMRIRB about their project proposal to ensure that NMRIRB receives the complete scope of a project proposal to enable NMRIRB to screen the project proposal as a whole.

The first step after receiving pertinent project proposal information and supporting documents is for the NMRIRB to screen the project proposal as per Part 7.4 of NILCA.Â The purpose of screening for the NMRIRB is to determine whether a project proposal has significant impact potential, and therefore requires a review under Part 5 or Part 6 (Article 7) of NILCA.

NILCA Impact Review Process

After the screening of projects is complete, and it has been determined by the NMRIRB and the Minister that a project requires review under Part 5 of Article 7 of the NILCA, The NMRIRB conducts a Part 5 Review of the project proposal. The following steps are generally followed:

Project Scoping and Guideline creation;

Issuance of Guidelines for the preparation of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS)

Preparation and submission of the DEIS by the project Proponent;

NMRIRB - Guideline conformity review of the DEIS;

Technical review of the DEIS;

Technical Meeting;

Pre-hearing conference (PHC);

Preparation and submission of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) by the project Proponent;

NMRIRB - FEIS compliance review;

Technical review of the FEIS;

Final hearing;

NMRIRB Determination: Delivery of the Final hearing report to the Minister